Tag Archives: donations

A Quick Question

** Update at 7pm. Today we’ve had £120 worth of tickets bought for these kids, that’s 4 kids who will be having the time of their lives tomorrow! Still trying and hoping for more though. Quick! Only got until tomorrow!**

**Update at 7.30pm The total has risen to £155, so that’s 5 and a bit tickets to Chessington World of Adventures. How amazing are you lot!!!!**

**Update at 8pm Whoopdedoo! We’re up to £170 now, if we can manage just another £10 more we’ll have 6 tickets! Come on!!!!**

**Update at 10pm. I can’t believe it, we have raised enough for eight children to go tomorrow! That’s £240, I’ve been asking for help on Facebook as well as Twitter and I’m just astounded at people’s generosity. I think I might be speechless/wordless, and that doesn’t happen very often. After the children have been on the trip, I’ve been given permission to post photographs, so you can all see what you’ve donated towards. Thank you so much x 100000. :O)

**Update at 10.30pm. It just gets better and better! Someone has just donated £10 so they can have ice-cream on their day out. Awww… So that makes it £250. Wow!

I saw a status on Facebook this morning that I just couldn’t ignore, I can’t personally help as we’re struggling ourselves, but I was wondering if anyone else would be able to do anything? I am willing to offer something in return, please read on!

Every year PostPals has an annual party for all the children they support, and in previous years they’ve all gone for a trip out to Chessington on the same weekend, with tickets donated from a company. This year the company has not been able to donate tickets so some families can’t afford to take their children. For some of these kids , this will quite literally be the last time they will ever have this opportunity again.

These are photographs of some of the children that PostPals support, I’m not sure who is in need of tickets, but these are just a reminder of the great work PostPals does and who they support. If you want to find out a bit more about this charity please click here: POST PALS

They are looking for 4 disabled childrens’ tickets and 7 under 12 childrens’ tickets. All are priced at approximately £30 a ticket, but the disabled ones allow an adult carer free also. The problem is, it is this Saturday, as in tomorrow so it’s really short notice. I know it’s really pushing it, but….

In return for a donation, I will happily write you a blog post advertising your lovely business / blog / products, or I’ll include pictures of your dog, favourite mug…..anything. I’ll write about any subject of your choice even. I’ll put anything on here (as long a it’s not lewd!) if you make a donation so these kids can have a fun day out. I’ll splash these blog posts across my social networks too. Please help!

If you do want to help, please contact me on kay@rubbermonkeys.co.uk or comment on this blog post with a Twitter ID (not your email address, you’ll get spammed to death) and I’ll get all the details so you can donate to PostPals. If you can do anything to help, these kids will be so grateful.

It’s a Friday, get that Friday feeling by doing something lovely for someone else. x Please.

(I’m offering 300 words on any subject of your choice and two photographs, can’t be bad!)

Penguin Amnesty Prize Draw!

Anyone who donated a penguin, a penguin related item, or made a donation was put into a prize draw for one of the items modelled below by a helpful penguin who will soon be sent to a PostPals child, along with all of his other penguin mates.

Give us a twirl!

I’m too thick to know how to install Rafflecopter or anything, but I do know how to be fair. So I dutifully wrote everyone’s names down and randomly chose four of them. Here are the results!

ButtonF1Fan (Julie Marlow) won the sparkly penguin bracelet.

InkyPrints won the very useful wine charms. (I think your penguin maybe takes after you? If so I think these will be very handy ;o)

Staffstechgirl (Helen O’Keefe) won the penguin earrings.

CupCakeMumma won the handpainted penguin keyring.

All of these prizes were donated by Dylan Ward (DylanWardArt31) to help out with the Penguin Amnesty Project. Thank you Dylan!

Please could all the winners contact me on Twitter with their addresses via Direct Message , you’re all on there so that’s handy!

Penguin Amnesty Gallery Part 4!

If you’re a newcomer to the blog, you may be wondering why I’m having an Penguin Amnesty of all things. It’s a bit of a long story, but if you read this post HERE, it explains things a little. I’m collecting them for the Post Pals charity and this is all sponsored by the fabuloso (I watch too much Dora The Exlorer…) Parcels For Delivery! Here’s a link to Parcels For Delivery’s official sponsorship page. They’re supporting Post Pals and the Penguin Amnesty. I love ’em!

Couldn’t resist including this link. You HAVE to watch it to the end! I never knew penguins made this noise!

If you’d like to see previous galleries featuring the often mischievous penguins marauding around my home, please follow the links below. You’ll be glad you did!

We have some newcomers to the Brink of Bedlam household, penguins with unusual skills and habits. We’ve had to lock the booze cupboard put it that way….

I went out shopping for the afternoon and came home to this?!! Do they do an Alcoholics Anonymous for Penguins? G’iz the phone number will you? Please?

This little alcofrolic (ie, alcohol makes them frolic shamelessly) penguin was donated by Inky Prints. I’d have preferred them to have admitted him to rehab for a fortnight before he got to our house, but hey ho!

‘Buttons’ These penguin themed buttons are used to help keep the tube from a stoma in place on a child’s tummy. The penguins have been playing frizbee with them, I keep telling them not to, but they ignore me now. *sobs pitifully*

There’s an absolutely wonderful group on Facebook called‘Team Tubey’ who make free medical accessories for children and adults who use medical tubes. They very kindly offered to help out the Penguin Amnesty project and a lady called Nadda Jabbour made and sent the buttons shown above and the bags shown below. These will all be sent to Post Pals kids who use tubes and can make use of them.

If anyone would like to have a go at making penguin themed buttons there is a pattern HERE you can follow. It looks fairly straightforward as far as I can see, and any help is much appreciated!

Medical accessory bags for children with stomas. Cute as….well… penguins!

Misi Handmade sent me Priscilla thanks to SuperCute Crochet Dolls and they also sent this absolutely beautifully made Emperor Penguin drawstring bag from MinXtures.Thanks so much to them for their lovely donations! By the way Misi, please could you tell me the best way to tell a penguin that she’s actually crap at gardening? Priscilla keeps trying, but she’s murdering my plants! Help!

The penguins have no excuse for losing their PE kit now!

The penguins now have ‘Penguin Pin Ups!’ I saw Priscilla staring at these posters the other day and she actually said ‘Pwoaar!’ I’m presuming these are the Kate Moss’s and the Brad Pitt’s of the penguin world?

Kim Lawrence sent 10 Penguin posters to donate to the Post Pals kids, thank you very much! (they aren’t creased by the way, it’s the ice-bergs doing their rippling sort of thing).

This is not a ginger penguin, this is a cat in a wetsuit wearing blue glasses. It’s just Kim Lawrence included this postcard and it amused me so much I had to post a pic even though it’s not a penguin. Just couldn’t help myself!

These are stunt penguins. One of them told me they used to perform in the circus. Please note the careful balancing act they perform and they way the top one is teetering just a little…. Daring little birdies!

Pabobo sent the Penguin Amnesty five Lumilove Penguins, they glow in the dark and erm…do circus tricks. It doesn’t say that on the packaging you know! *nods knowingly* I should imagine they’re very comforting penguins on long dark nights. You can find more about them HERE.

So there you have it! An updated Penguin Amnesty gallery! As Parcels For Delivery is officially now supporting PostPals, they are also accepting penguin donations, so if you’d rather send donations to them rather than me, feel free. The postal address is on their sponsorship page which is at the top of this post. Alternatively you can contact me on kay@rubbermonkeys.co.uk and I’ll be happy to supply my details re. posting penguins.

Please do consider supporting the penguin amnesty, whatever you have that is penguin themed and suitable for a child, please do send it our way! We’re accepting penguin toys, penguin clothing, penguin pictures, penguin books, anything penguiney or arctic themed! The only line I draw is that we don’t want ‘real’ penguins. The zoos are rather possessive over their penguins and frankly I don’t have room in the bath.

Thanks so much for reading and keep your eyes on the gallery as more and more penguins are collected for Post Pals! Thank you!

If you’d like to see the Gallery Part 1 it is HERE, and if you’d like to have a look at the Gallery part 2, it is HERE! Both have been regularly updated and you might find a few more additions there if you go and have a beaky.

Now…..I have to admit as I’ve been storing these penguins for a while, the kids have located my stash and they raided it one day, so it all got a bit chaotic for a bit. As a result, if I’ve missed including your penguin, or if I’ve mislabeled any of them and have attributed them to the wrong donater, please, please do let me know. Due to the success of this project I’ve really had my hands full with them all.

There’s also been two bereavements in the extended family in the last month and I’ve had rather a nasty Ulcerative Colitis flare, so that’s my excuse for my lack of organisation. I never realised that funerals could be like buses, there’s none for 10 years and then two turn up in a matter of weeks. *sad smile* The penguins have been rather miserable recently too. I’ve given them more tuna to cheer them up and they’re perking up nicely though you’ll be pleased to hear.

Anyway, here we go! Some more additions to the penguin family!

Dudley Zoo sent a Penguin Adoption pack, a chocolate penguin and two tickets for a day out at the zoo too!

Dudley Zoo have been incredibly generous, this pack is chocka with badges, a chocolate penguin, an adoption pack, leaflets and as mentioned above, day passes. I’m so grateful for their involvement, thank you Dudley Zoo! (pls note that rhymes, I like that a lot)

Aw….Have you seen Patricia the Penguin leaning affectionately on Sausage’s monkey lunch bag? I think she likes monkeys a lot. The hand towel is so cute too!

Zooey Toornent sent Patrick and Tooloola. They’re very organised penguins and have told me off because my shelves are a disaster. I am thoroughly ashamed. Both of them have threatened to re-organise things, I might let them, I can’t be arsed anyway. Cheers Zoe!

Now this Penguin is special. Not only is he musical (note the microphone), he is also bright green, very squishy and glows in the dark. He claims to originate from the seas just off shore of Fukishima. I believe him. Another donation from Zooey Toornent!

Babooskha the Eskimo penguin was donated by the ‘Play Merrily’ Toy Shop and is extremely imaginative. I keep finding her in the washing machine shouting ‘I’m in a spaceship!’ and ‘Blast off to Antarctica!’ Is this normal? I don’t think it is? I worry about my flippery mates you know.

The Play Merrily Toy Shop can be seen HERE and they a lovely range of toys, thanks for sending Babooshka! Would you mind telling her to get out of the washing machine though please? It’s bad enough with the penguins hogging the bathroom.

These are the gatecrashers! They are not penguins and the teddies at the back are wearing dark sunglasses, in fact they look a little shifty if you ask me. I told them ‘Your name’s not on the list, you can’t come in!’ but they barged past me anyway! The cheek!

Lucy Zelazowski donated this huge pile of toys, (they’re actually very lovely teddies and I appreciate them loads, as will a poorly child from PostPals). It’s so sweet of you, cheers midears!

Dennis the Penguin and his mate Monty the Monkey are both fitness freaks. They dutifully sit on the bikes in the front room, swaying from side to side as if balancing at high speeds, ALL THE TIME. Monty ‘Oooks!’ a lot and Dennis goes ‘Nook!’ a lot too, it’s very distracting in here when I’m trying to type you know.

The Balloon Baboon shop sent us these two, and my kids absolutely adore them! They have said they will also send a penguin to a Post Pals child too, here’s a flipper full of applause for them! *Flip-Flap-FlipFlipFlip-Flapper* Slap your flippers purlease! Their truly original and exceptionally cute site can be found HERE.

Some of the older penguins are teaching the younger ones to read. These little books help a lot. (Thanks Zoe again!) x

I think it’s important that the penguins learn about their heritage and where they came from. They currently live in a house in the north-west of the UK, eating fish from cans – I’ve been concerned that they’d forget their roots. This book helps to remind them of where they came from!

The above book and the ones featured below all came from The Book Club. The penguins here have read them cover to cover and have their seal of approval (which is very impressive, they’re not easily pleased you know!) All of them will be passed on to Post Pals kids. Thanks Charlie! Their website can be found HERE!

Who would have thought there were Penguin Fairies?! It’s all news to me!

There’s even Spy Penguins! I’m well impressed!

Curious penguins are not new to me though. I’ve found so many of them wandering around the house investigating the fridge, the cupboards, the bathroom, even my filing drawers! I think they’ve naturally beaky.

I still have quite a few more to add, so if yours isn’t updated as yet, please be patient. And if I’ve mislabelled any of them, honestly do tell me, in fact I’d be so grateful if you would. I’d hate to think I didn’t appreciate any of your donations. InkyPrints, and Jenny Orpwood, I’ll add yours as soon as I can.

Because of recent events I’ve just not managed to get the vlog done, although I can show you this picture. Sis and I have been working on converting the kitchen across the road into a Penguinarium (whatever one of them is). It involved a lot (and I mean a LOT) of polystyrene balls and cut out snowflakes.

Can I just say, tiny polystyrene balls stick to absolutely everything, hair, hands, freezers, penguins. They were a little more effective than even I wanted them to be. We will never, ever, be able to clear the house of them!

We’ve been worried about the neibours ringing the Men in White Coats. Sis suggested that they probably think we’re having a weird kind of nervous breakdown and are having conversations along these lines:

Man: ‘Do you know that woman over there is grating huge lumps of polystyrene?’

Woman: ‘Really?!!!’

Man: ‘Yes, really. With a garden fork and a cheesegrater.’

Woman: *stares in disbelief through net curtains*

Man: ‘They’re also lining up stuffed penguins on the doorstep’

Woman: *locks door*

I’m not sure if we’ll be friends with the new neibours or not, I suspect they’ll avoid us like the plague.

As a final note, I think (details to be finalised) I have found an amazing courier who will help with fundraising and postage. I’ll update with more solid information when it’s all been finalised. I am ecstatic!